News

News

More than 99 percent of your genetic information is exactly the same as every other person on the planet. Your genes determine your skin colour, sex, and hair colour and whether or not you have certain genetic diseases.

Researchers have identified a new way to potentially slow the fast-growing cells that characterize all types of cancer. By removing a specific protein from cells, they were able to slow the cell cycle, which is out of control in cancer. The findings were made in kidney and cervical cancer cells and are a long way from being applied in people, but could be the basis of a treatment option in the future.

FOR $150, YOU can buy a Crispr kit online and use it to engineer heartier gut bacteria in your kitchen. That’s thrilling, but the technology is giving Jennifer Doudna, an inventor of the gene-­editing method, nightmares. Easy genetic modification could mean cures for cancer (yay!), kitty-sized pigs (squee!), and, yes, designer babies (ack).

Favorable mutations that went along with increased fruit size and other beneficial traits in tomato plants do not always play well together. A study published in Cell found that natural mutations in two important tomato genes that were selected for different purposes in breeding can cause extreme branching and reduce fruit yield when they occur in the same plant. The researchers used those genes to create a tomato plant that grows more tomatoes.

Novel proteins, created from scratch with no particular design in mind, can sometimes do the work of a natural protein. The discovery may widen the toolkit of synthetic biologists trying to build bespoke organisms.

A permanent cure for HIV infection remains elusive due to the virus's ability to hide away in latent reservoirs. But now, scientists show that they can excise HIV DNA from the genomes of living animals to eliminate further infection.

Using CRISPR technology, a team of researchers rewired stem cells' genetic circuits to produce an anti-inflammatory arthritis drug when the cells encounter inflammation. The technique eventually could act as a vaccine for arthritis and other chronic conditions.